Yes, watch in the theater if at all possible - the nearly sold-out audience in our theater on opening day was multi-generational and multi-racial and we all seemed to roar with laughter, cringe, and loudly applaud at the same things. I saw no sulkers, and believe me I was looking - anyone with the guts to come to a movie they were determined to hate was going to get at least a friendly nod from me on the way out. People stood around outside the door after the movie laughing and making jokes e.g. "hey baby - I'll sure take some reparation money!" A very relaxed and friendly and in-sync crowd. We'd have missed so much if we'd waited for streaming.
I saw it this weekend. My husband and I thought it was pretty narrowly focused on the DEI industry, rather than racism itself, making it a wider net movie. It seemed aimed to give a feel-good ending to most regular people who are not DEI-academics. Anywhere in academia gets into to weird trends and niches, but this one affects average Americans more than medieval studies or archeology PhDs, since every corporate office and college and government-related anything does DEI trainings now and asks for diversity statements on applications for grants or scholarships, etc.
We think Matt Walsh played it safe with the narrow scope, so that to anyone complaining about the existence of the movie, he could respond, "So you don't want grifters exposed?" I was surprised how feel-good this movie was, when "What is a Woman?" left me feeling sick (it was excellently made, just awful, awful content that parents should be aware of). Parts of this were so cringey to me that I was squirming in my seat, but I did laugh out loud several times.
Years ago, I stopped volunteering to help with college recruiting at my engineering company because the DEI quotas (pushed by the government) got so absurd. The people setting them and talking about them (percentage of US citizen women or US citizen minorities in electrical engineering that they wanted to hire) seemed so disconnected from reality. If a graduating class of 100 engineers has 5-10 women and 2-5 black students (and not all US citizens), you can't honestly expect all of them will come to our company. Google has basically infinity money and they can't hire to meet the diversity goals they set. And it makes everything so affirmative actiony and messed up. I was hired based on my talents and experiences, but the more low GPA young women we hired and the more high GPA white young men we turned away, the more I felt like people would look at me, a woman in electrical engineering, as a diversity hire.
Honestly, probably my biggest critique of the film was that it sort of ended abruptly, but I agree that the narrow focus of the film was probably a smart strategy to fend off any complaints, and it seemingly has worked.
I admit to not watching this film precisely because it seems to portray a select few extreme opinions and portray them as indicative of the majority of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. What is your response to that?
I would say it is less damning of the idea of DEI in general but more or less exposing the people who use it for nothing but monetary gain. As someone who taught in NYC schools from 2020-2022 and had to go through DEI training every year I will say despite its well meaning there is not a lot of substance behind most of its ideas. Also, the thesis of the film essentially is that the more we talk about race and make it an issue the more we are likely to see the differences in each other rather than the similarities. There’s a great Thomas Sowell quote used in the film that I think fits well with this thesis- ”Racism is not dead, but it is on life support – kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’”
Thanks for your reflections. I hope that other people who saw the film walked away with more of your nuanced take than my presupposition. My sister has been a DEI professional for several years, after working as a History teacher. I've learned a lot from her, including the diversity of opinions and credentials held within the profession itself.
Yes, watch in the theater if at all possible - the nearly sold-out audience in our theater on opening day was multi-generational and multi-racial and we all seemed to roar with laughter, cringe, and loudly applaud at the same things. I saw no sulkers, and believe me I was looking - anyone with the guts to come to a movie they were determined to hate was going to get at least a friendly nod from me on the way out. People stood around outside the door after the movie laughing and making jokes e.g. "hey baby - I'll sure take some reparation money!" A very relaxed and friendly and in-sync crowd. We'd have missed so much if we'd waited for streaming.
I saw it this weekend. My husband and I thought it was pretty narrowly focused on the DEI industry, rather than racism itself, making it a wider net movie. It seemed aimed to give a feel-good ending to most regular people who are not DEI-academics. Anywhere in academia gets into to weird trends and niches, but this one affects average Americans more than medieval studies or archeology PhDs, since every corporate office and college and government-related anything does DEI trainings now and asks for diversity statements on applications for grants or scholarships, etc.
We think Matt Walsh played it safe with the narrow scope, so that to anyone complaining about the existence of the movie, he could respond, "So you don't want grifters exposed?" I was surprised how feel-good this movie was, when "What is a Woman?" left me feeling sick (it was excellently made, just awful, awful content that parents should be aware of). Parts of this were so cringey to me that I was squirming in my seat, but I did laugh out loud several times.
Years ago, I stopped volunteering to help with college recruiting at my engineering company because the DEI quotas (pushed by the government) got so absurd. The people setting them and talking about them (percentage of US citizen women or US citizen minorities in electrical engineering that they wanted to hire) seemed so disconnected from reality. If a graduating class of 100 engineers has 5-10 women and 2-5 black students (and not all US citizens), you can't honestly expect all of them will come to our company. Google has basically infinity money and they can't hire to meet the diversity goals they set. And it makes everything so affirmative actiony and messed up. I was hired based on my talents and experiences, but the more low GPA young women we hired and the more high GPA white young men we turned away, the more I felt like people would look at me, a woman in electrical engineering, as a diversity hire.
Honestly, probably my biggest critique of the film was that it sort of ended abruptly, but I agree that the narrow focus of the film was probably a smart strategy to fend off any complaints, and it seemingly has worked.
I admit to not watching this film precisely because it seems to portray a select few extreme opinions and portray them as indicative of the majority of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. What is your response to that?
I would say it is less damning of the idea of DEI in general but more or less exposing the people who use it for nothing but monetary gain. As someone who taught in NYC schools from 2020-2022 and had to go through DEI training every year I will say despite its well meaning there is not a lot of substance behind most of its ideas. Also, the thesis of the film essentially is that the more we talk about race and make it an issue the more we are likely to see the differences in each other rather than the similarities. There’s a great Thomas Sowell quote used in the film that I think fits well with this thesis- ”Racism is not dead, but it is on life support – kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’”
Thanks for your reflections. I hope that other people who saw the film walked away with more of your nuanced take than my presupposition. My sister has been a DEI professional for several years, after working as a History teacher. I've learned a lot from her, including the diversity of opinions and credentials held within the profession itself.
This helps us to know how great this movie is in our day Thank you!!!